Monthly archives for April, 2011

Humanity+, the world’s leading nonprofit organization advocating the ethical use of technology to expand human capabilities, today announced its first conference in partnership with Parsons The New School for Design, a leading art and design school in New York City dedicated to the advancement of design thinking and education. Transhumanism Meets Design explores the role of design in transcending and transforming human potential, and will take place at The New School May 14–15, 2011. This groundbreaking conference features lectures and panels that bring together and explore the nexus of emerging technology, transdisciplinary design, culture, media theory, and biotechnology.

Transhumanism aims to elevate the human condition. Design is a process for problem solving. At Transhumanism Meets Design, these two domains will join forces as leading transhumanists, cyberneticists, life extensionists, singularity advocates, artificial intelligence experts, human enhancement specialists, inventors, ethicists, and philosophers gather to explore human futures, ask questions, construct ideas, and peer over the edge into the unknown.

“Translating this narrative calls for a transdisciplinarity that brings emerging technologies and creative insights to the forefront. Transhumanist aesthetics pioneers how we will design our existence and future identity,” said Natasha Vita-More, vice chair of Humanity+, who co-chairs the conference with Ed Keller, associate dean of Distributed Learning and Technology at Parsons. “We live in an era of unprecedented interest in design,” said Keller. “Recognizing that the body could be the next frontier, we are challenging designers to use the research tools developed to enhance products to engage and extend the human body.”

Featured speakers include Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, and Vivian Rosenthal, cofounder of New York–based Tronic Studio. Also speaking are artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel, chair of Humanity+; Natasha Vita-More, artist and theorist of transhumanism; strategic philosopher Max More, CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation; and neuroscientist Anders Sandberg, a James Martin Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University.

Alcor’s information packet is now instantly available for people who are thinking about becoming an Alcor member or for people who would like to receive more information about cryonics. It is available in three different ways: (1) to view online; or (2) to download, print, and save for future use; or (3) to request a packet by mail.

Alcor Facility Tour – Thursday, April 21, 2011The Arizona Futurists Society is scheduled to tour our facility on April 21, 2011. Due to limited space in our conference room we are only able accommodate 20 people from this group. The Arizona Futurists Chapter of the World Future Society is a community of thinkers, strategists and communicators interested in looking forward to the future.

Objective of the AZ Futurists Chapter

Share information about the Futures Community with the Local Community.

Expand open forum, discussion and awareness of the future and importance of its study.

Advance serious and responsible investigation of the future — global, national, and regional.

Promote futures studies methods/approaches/theories.

Facilitate communication and cooperation among organizations and individuals interested in studying or planning for the future.

The next Alcor Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for FRIDAY, April 29, 2011, at 11:00 A.M. (PDT) at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) . Members and the public are encouraged to attend.

Recent Team Training
The Scottsdale team held a one day training session. There were sixteen people in attendance which included four Alcor staff members. The Arizona team training sessions are different from that of regional teams due to the availability of Alcor’s rescue vehicle, and the use of different equipment and supplies.

Upcoming Team Training
The next team training is scheduled for the Pacific Northwest Team on Friday, May 6th & Saturday, May 7th, in Portland, Oregon. The times and location will be announced shortly. The team leader for this group is Aschwin de Wolf.

Membership
Alcor had 935 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. Eight memberships were approved during this month, no memberships were reinstated, four memberships were cancelled and one member was cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net gain of three members this month.

Applicant
Alcor had 52 applicants for membership. Six new applicants were added, eight applicants were converted to members and no applicants were cancelled resulting in net loss of two applicants for this month.

Information Packets
Alcor received 109 info pack requests this month. Eleven were handed out during facility tours or from special request. The average total of 132 info packs sent per month in 2011 as compared to 199 in 2010.

The next Alcor Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 2, 2011, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 A.M. (PDT). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.

In late March of this year, Alcor was notified that a member in Pennsylvania had entered into the hospital with severe abdominal pain and was critically ill. As her medical providers predicted that she would probably not survive, Alcor’s Medical Response Director, Aaron Drake and Readiness Coordinator, Steve Graber were on a plane to the east coast within the next three hours. Upon arrival, the member’s health condition had stabilized and appeared to have improved somewhat. While optimistic that a recovery might be possible, diagnostic tests and blood labs indicated that a terminal outcome was more probable. This pause in the patient’s health decline provided an opportunity to request that Suspended Animation respond as well to help perform a field washout and perfusion.

On the third day of the standby, the member succumbed to her illness. Highly cooperative hospital administrators and physicians allowed the Alcor team to perform stabilization and cool down procedures within the patient’s private hospital room immediately following pronouncement. The patient was then transferred to a local mortuary where Suspended Animation was set up to complete the next step in the process. The family had pre-paid additional funds to Alcor for a private jet to eliminate the potential delays associated with commercial air travel. After a six and half hour flight, the patient arrived at the Scottsdale Airport, located just a few blocks from Alcor Central. Alcor’s surgical team was standing by and performed vitrification procedures throughout the night. On Saturday, March 26th, member A-2478 became Alcor’s 104th patient.